Here are the top 5 Formula 2 drivers of the season 2022 we think which perform best out of everyone else.
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Not every year in the junior series is memorable. Natural talent cycles can cut some Formula 2 years short. The 2022 season, on the other hand, saw a good crop of rookies racing at the head of the points and enough experienced drivers to show that on merit. The title fight between Felipe Drugovich and Théo Pourchaire was over after Monza, but the five-way race for third place until the final round in Abu Dhabi demonstrated how competitive the field was. Throughout the season, 12 different drivers won races, and six of them achieved pole positions. Here are the five that Sportslumo thought stood out.
Lawson’s second Formula 2 season arrives at an unusual moment. He emerged as the lead candidate for promotion from a multitude of Red Bull junior team members, but he also appears to be less likely to do so than he did during his DTM title run last year. Lawson’s season was solid, but he was outpaced in races and qualifying by his rookie teammate at Carlin, Logan Sargeant, until an end-of-season uptick in form saw him take third place by a single point. A modern Formula 2 car is difficult to drive, and first practise outings for both Red Bull and AlphaTauri will have only reinforced the fact that better equipment is available, but Lawson looked securely midfield for much of the year until the final weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Doohan’s maiden Formula 2 season, together with Ayumu Iwasa and Sargeant, was maybe only hampered by the lack of a teammate to compare himself to. Marino Sato was as thoroughly snubbed by Doohan at Virtuosi as Clement Novalak was by Drugovich at MP. All the more impressive given Doohan’s lack of experience and ability to clinch pole in the first round in Bahrain. That didn’t easy translate into a race win in Formula 2, and Doohan had to watch Drugovich win from his second pole in Barcelona before finally taking the top step for the first time during the Silverstone sprint race. Doohan has likely been the most aggressive of the high-placed rookies this season. His greatest shortcoming has been failing to capitalise on his several pole positions, but his confidence in the F2 car and speed has been palpable.
Logan Sargeant, the only driver to have graduated from Formula 2 to Formula 1 this year, has excelled expectations. For the majority of the season, he led seasoned teammate Lawson in the rankings, outqualifying and outracing Lawson, and was probably only cheated out of third place – or even the chance to contend for second – in the standings by bad luck. Five retirements in the final six rounds of the season allowed Lawson to close the gap and take third by a point, but Sargeant’s solid qualifying and race performances maintained him in line for a superlicence. Winning the Silverstone and Red Bull Ring feature races, in particular, demonstrated his strengths as a driver, and defying pressure to finish fourth in the last round demonstrated his ability to handle the heat at vital periods.
Ayumu Iwasa would have been regarded an oddity among the vast crop of Red Bull-backed aspirants participating in F2 this year. Dennis Hauger and Jehan Daruvala had won the Prema positions, Liam Lawson and then-Red Bull favourite Jüri Vips the Hitechs, but Iwasa was demoted to a DAMS drive, despite the team’s dominance. Iwasa was one of the final Honda Formula Dream Project intakes to the programme, and with Red Bull seemingly no longer needing to please the manufacturer, his chances may have been bleak. His first season in F2 has been a revelation. Iwasa appeared to have found his feet in F2 after finishing 12th in Formula 3 last year. A breakthrough podium in the sprint race in Barcelona evolved into a disappointing mid-season run, but he returned to form after Silverstone, winning the Paul Ricard feature race for the first time. Making teammate Roy Nissany appear ordinary may not be the most difficult assignment in Formula 2, but Iwasa’s results are DAMS’ best since 2019.
Drugovich, who was unsupported by any F1 programme and had mostly flown under the radar in the previous two years, returned to MP Motorsport for his third year in Formula 2. It was a risk that paid off handsomely, with Drugovich’s season kicking off with a podium and win in the second round in Jeddah and never letting up. Drugovich demonstrated how much more he could pull from the tough Formula 2 car than any other driver until the final corner of the final lap. MP’s engineering should not be given all of the credit for his success, with teammate Clement Novalak unable to find comparable pace in the car and Drugovich scoring 87% of the points to win the team title.
Drugovich was patient, industrious, and clean on the track, avoiding radio meltdowns, crashes, catastrophic traffic, and poor strategy calls to take a well-earned title. With reliability issues in both clutch and engine and some erratic team errors during races – such as botched pit stops that saw drivers leave with tyres unattached – F2 could definitely be accused of concealing some talents, but Drugovich’s season was largely flawless and perhaps without the pressure of a junior programme (only journalists asking him when he would join one) he was more free to enjoy focusing purely on F2. After a fantastic weekend in Barcelona, when he won both races and set the fastest lap, the title was pretty much his to lose. Despite only winning two more races, Drugovich’s outstanding qualifying results put him in contention for points in every race, and he only finished outside the top 10 twice all season. Drugovich is a deserving champion and the 2022 standout driver, consistently making the most of MP’s performance.
Juri Vips is solely responsible for his expulsion from Red Bull’s young driver programme after uttering a racial slur during a live video broadcast. Vips, who was often quite quick, missed a few chances for wins and pole positions, but was allowed to finish the season after Hitech decided to keep him on. Ralph Boschung deserves kudos for his daring – if not his prudence – in continuing to race despite a doctor’s discouragement, which he admitted was owing to health issues he experienced in 2022. Facet Syndrome, a severe spinal neck problem, forcing him to withdraw from the Barcelona main event and several subsequent rounds. Despite this, he responded with a sprint event podium in Belgium and a 15th-place finish in the World Championships.
